Africa-Press – South-Africa. The trial of a State Security Agency (SSA) employee accused of defrauding the intelligence service of more than R1 million has had to be postponed after he failed to appear in court.
Thuso Leonard Oesi was meant to appear in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, but he did not pitch up. Instead, his attorney handed a medical certificate to the court.
A warrant of arrest was authorised, but stayed until his next court appearance on 18 July.
Charge sheet
According to the charge sheet, Oesi is accused of defrauding the SSA of around R1.1 million between August 2019 and February 2020. Oesi, who is employed as an SAP system administrator at the SSA, allegedly created fictitious payment advance authorisations to himself for training courses.
SSA employee accused of R1.1m fraud to get IT expert to testify on his behalf
He allegedly did this by:
The State said Oesi then reversed the payments on the SSA system to reflect that no funds were due and payable by him, and that the courses had been attended.
However, the State claimed Oesi never attended any courses and that he pocketed the money meant for training.
In addition, Oesi, who had a monthly salary of R46 266, allegedly amended the payment system to reflect a net salary of R80 268.71 in January 2020, and then R174 141.21 in February.
He has been charged with seven counts of fraud, three of contravening the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, nine of forgery, and nine of uttering.
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